


Of Bears and Cages

by Tassos



Series: A City Elf Walks Into a Blight - Ian Tabris Stories [6]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Developing Friendships, Gen, Lothering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 12:10:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10741440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tassos/pseuds/Tassos
Summary: Lothering is full of unexpected surprises. Bears are bigger than Ian imagined they'd be, and men in cages bring up unexpected feelings.





	Of Bears and Cages

So far Ian wasn't sure that his attempts at leading them were doing any good. His first attempt to get supplies in Lothering had led to a sharp dismissal by the Chantry sister and the merchant both, and his first attempt at getting news had led to a brawl and them nearly skewered by Loghain's men. He supposed the second Chantry sister who had come to their aid and wanted to join them was something. She seemed to handle herself well enough anyway.

Alistair wasn't happy about it, of course. Their hushed conversation outside the tavern had gone something like this.

"She's woo-woo!" 

"We need all the help we can get. She's coming along if she wants."

"She's going to be a liability and we won't be able to protect her." Alistair jabbed a hand angrily in her direction.

"I thought you didn't want to make any of the decisions?" Ian snapped. 

"That doesn't mean I want you to make bad ones!" Alistair rejoined, and for a moment Ian was sure he was going to get smacked in the face. Gamely, he didn't let his eyes drop, staring Alistair down like he would a shemlin come to slum in the alienage. He could take a little roughing up. But his fellow warden cracked and stepped back, spinning around and pacing off a little ways.

Ian slowly let out a breath, his eyes glancing toward Morrigan who was watching them both.

"Well. I for one think she will make an excellent companion," she said, and Ian couldn't tell if she was serious, sarcastic, or just trying to get under Alistair's skin.

Now, as they trailed through the farmland looking for bandits so they could gather some coin for supplies, Ian eyed the bow Leliana had just used to bring down a giant roaring creature and thought Morrigan was probably right, sarcastic or not.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" he asked her.

"I wasn't always a lay sister," Leliana replied with a bit of a grin for him that Ian found himself returning. 

Up ahead, Alistair scowled as he resheathed his sword and trudged back toward them. He gave Leliana a wary glance, as if waiting for her to comment before finally saying grudgingly, "Nice shot." 

"Thank you," Leliana replied with cheerful enthusiasm that remained sincere. Alistair gave her one last suspicious look before turning his attention to Ian.

"You all right?" he asked. "Did your sword get stuck in its sheath?"

"No," Ian said, uncomfortable as Alistair now gave him the once over, looking for injuries. He should have been in the thick of it with him, he supposed, and he was somewhat embarrassed to admit, "I was just startled by that . . . by that thing." Ian nodded toward the creature that Morrigan was now . . . doing something to. "It's huge."

Alistair looked confused for a moment, and Leliana laughed, a light sound that did nothing to make Ian feel better about freezing up.

"It's just a bear," she said.

"I thought they were smaller!" Ian said, trying to reconcile the creature to the stories he'd heard.

"You've fought darkspawn. And an ogre." Alistair shook his head, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

"Yeah, but I knew what they were supposed to be like. And you were surprised by the ogre too," Ian pointed out. "Besides, Leliana got the bear before we needed to."

"Oh Wardens!" Morrigan called out, and they all looked up to see another two enraged bears roaring toward them.

Alistair slapped the back of his hand against Ian's chest. "Draw your sword this time," he said then set off at a trot to meet the beasts.

Ian stared at the bears and really didn't want to draw his sword to meet them. He took a fortifying breath.

"The Maker will watch over you," Leliana said kindly. He glanced over at her, and she smiled before turning her attention to her aim. It wasn't much comfort, but Ian supposed they really couldn't be worse than darkspawn so he launched himself after Alistair.

This is the thing he learned about how bears are different from darkspawn. Darkspawn were ugly and carried swords or bows, but they still fought like people did, even for people who didn't feel much pain. Bears. Bears swiped and lumbered and had claws on arms as big as Ian. They didn't move anything like people moved and he nearly got his arm torn off on his parry when the bear casually swatted him aside like he was no more than a horse fly. Ian rolled to his feet and scooped up his dropped sword and dagger as quickly as he could. He didn't want to be caught on the ground. Then he dodged back, and then dodged again, startling when Alistair appeared out of no where to ram the creature in the back. _His_ sword had no trouble finding flesh, and the bear spun and roared.

The other bear was rearing back under the dual onslaught of Morrigan's spells and Leliana's arrows, and a moment later it toppled dead with an arrow in its throat. Alistair finished off the first one, and Ian felt completely useless again as he caught his breath.

"See," said Alistair, breathing hard but grinning broadly. "That wasn't so bad." 

Ian eyed him warily, catching his own breath. His eyes flickered to the humongous beast that had nearly killed him, before flicking back up to Alistair. 

"I'm not sure you're not a little woo-woo," he said.

Morrigan laughed, and Leliana too, the sound startlingly bright. Alistair made a face like he was hurt, but he couldn't quite keep his grin from returning.

"A few more bear fights and we'll toughen you up in no time," Alistair said.

"I'll stick to darkspawn, thanks," Ian replied. "So, uh, are those pelts of theirs valuable?"

"Are they valuable, he asks," Morrigan rolled her eyes. She walked over to the bears and … did whatever she'd been doing to the other one. Ian had to turn away after a minute.

In the end, the bears turned out to be worth the effort. Their skins, teeth, and claws earned them enough with one of the traders to buy a few supplies at the inn. Rooms still weren't available but when dark fell they at least had a couple tents now. The Chanter rewarded them for getting rid of the bandits, and after asking around town, they found a few more odd jobs.

Ian hadn't noticed the cage on their first foray into the countryside, but when they went out later that afternoon to set some traps, the large man inside shifted, catching his attention. Ian blinked slowly and his eyes caught on the prisoner who was staring straight back at him. It was more than a little unsettling, and Ian couldn't help looking for the lock, feeling trapped himself at the small confines of the cage.

He approached Leliana when they were out in the fields again. Nodding back toward town, he asked, "Do you know why that man was locked up?"

Leliana glanced over her shoulder even though they were really too far away to see much more than the smudge of the cage against the palisades. "He killed a farm family I think. I'm not really sure. Why?"

"No reason," Ian said quickly, and Leliana gave him a lingering look. 

"The Reverend Mother passed the sentence, I know that," she said.

"Hmm." Ian nodded, hurrying ahead. "We'd better get these traps laid."

Ian tried to push it from his mind, and did when Alistair accidentally set off one of the traps and nearly took his own foot off. But when they approached the edge of the village on their return, Ian felt his eyes drawn to the cage once more.

The man inside caught his eyes again, and this time, Ian let himself be drawn in. He lagged behind the others and stopped in front of the cage. Up close the prisoner was taller than he'd appeared before, with white hair braided close to his head. His eyes narrowed as Ian approached.

"You aren't one of my captors. I will not amuse you any more than I have the other humans. Leave me in peace," he said.

"What did you do?" he asked the prisoner.

For a moment he didn't think he'd get an answer, but the prisoner finally broke the silence. "Have the villagers not told you? I was convicted of murder. I killed the people of farm hold not far from here. Eight humans, including the children."

"Murder." Ian took a half step back from the cage, even though the prisoner was solidly held. He bumped into Leliana who had returned for him.

"The Reverend Mother sentenced him to die in this cage," she said, coming to stand beside Ian. "Starvation. It is a cruel death."

"What I did was cruel," the prisoner answered.

"Why did you kill them, then?" Ian asked. He could see it so easily. Humans with pitchforks and children with sticks. Come to either kill the stranger or help him. Humans were fickle creatures, and if this was a soldier on their land, Ian wouldn't put it past them killing a soldier outright. Or maybe they saw a wounded man, and just as Flemeth had saved him and Alistair, they were prepared to take him in and nurse him back to health.

"I am Sten of the Beresaad, vanguard of the Qunari. My squad was attacked and killed by darkspawn, all except for me. When I woke, I was disoriented and killed the humans who'd found me. I will now suffer the consequences."

He said it with barely a change in his tone to indicate any kind of emotion, and his eyes did not stray from Ian's, as if he accepted his questions and his deeds. He was nothing like the murderers Ian had known in Denerim. It was unsettling. Cold. Ian couldn't quite believe that someone so … so aware had lost control of himself. And yet, Ian remembered rage.

"He's been in there for weeks now. He should be dead already," Leliana said quietly.

"A human would be, but I am Qunari," Sten said, glancing at her. "It won't be much longer now. A week maybe." His gaze returned to Ian. "You look troubled. Do not be. Death will be my atonement."

The finality with which he said it set a stone heavily in Ian's chest. He looked at the bars, the cramped space of the cage and all he saw was himself inside such a cage. It could so easily have been him. It almost had been. In Denerim, he'd been moments from being dragged off in chains, headed for a cage like this one.

The thought set his ears pounding, and Ian suddenly found it hard to breathe. He sketched a quick nod to Sten to take his leave and hurried away. He vaguely heard footsteps behind him but it wasn't till they'd passed back into the village that Leliana gently touched his elbow and steered him in between two buildings, out of sight.

Ian leaned heavily against a wall and let his head thunk back against the wood. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to breathe.

"Slowly," Leliana murmured, her hand smoothing up and down his arm. "Deep breaths. Here, listen and breathe with me." She took a deep breath and Ian opened his eyes, fixing on hers. She breathed in and out, and he tried to match her. After a minute, he finally began to feel less like the sky was falling on him.

"All right?" Leliana asked, with a smile that felt more like a question.

Ian nodded and scrubbed his hands over his face. "Yes. Sorry."

"There is no need to apologize. You looked like you've seen a ghost."

Ian huffed a laugh that wasn't really a laugh. He held his fingers in his hair, tangling them through the strands, pulling on his scalp. The pain helped to ground him. 

"I guess I did," he said. 

He glanced at Leliana again. He'd met her just a day ago, and all he really knew about her was that she had visions from the Maker, was a wicked shot, and she wanted to come fight darkspawn with them because they needed all the help they could get. But her face was kind and patient as she regarded him. The sisters at the Chantry had often been better humans than most.

"I was almost locked up and executed for murder," he told her, swallowing hard against the memory of that day. 

"Murder?"

"A shem noble, who'd come into the alienage and kidnapped my cousin. I killed him getting her out of his estate," Ian hastily explained. He couldn't tell what she thought of him now, but she hadn't flinched or moved away. Her hand still rested lightly on his shoulder.

"Why weren't you taken arrested?" she asked quietly. 

"I was conscripted into the Wardens instead. I'm not sure it was a better sentence," he said.

"You're alive," Leliana said. Her face was still hard to read, but she nodded. "You're alive to fight a great evil. If you ask me, that is the Maker's hand at work. What if he meant for you to meet this Sten of Beresaad so he, too, could do the Maker's work?"

"You don't think he deserves to be punished for murdering eight humans?"

"It is not for me to say what justice is," Leliana said, which Ian found a strange thing to say. "Perhaps his weeks without food or water are punishment enough."

Ian squinted at her, taking in once more the contrast of her chantry robes with the bow and quiver. "You're a very odd chantry sister," he told her.

Leliana laughed. "I've not always been a lay sister," she said, her smile turning soft. "The world is not always an easy place, even when the answers seem obvious. That's why I turned to the Maker. But he sometimes works in mysterious ways."

At her words, some of his pent up fear and memory drained away, leaving him feeling empty. Ian let his head fall back against the wall again. "I'm not sure I believe in the Maker."

"Then maybe you should ask yourself whether justice is more important than defeating the Blight." Leliana squeezed his shoulder, then let him go, and a moment later left him alone.

Ian took another deep breath and let it out slowly. That farm family wouldn't be coming back to life. They were dead. So many more were going to die when the darkspawn left Ostagar. And charged with stopping them, they were … four. Plus a war dog. Ian already knew what he was going to do. He'd known the moment Sten of the Beresaad had told him his crime.

He pushed himself back into the sunlight and down the path to the cage.

"You said death is your atonement. So you would you take it back?" Ian asked when he was once more standing in front of Sten. "If you could."

"I do not understand," Sten said, his brow furrowing. "The deed is done. Whether I would change the past or not is irrelevant."

"I'm offering you a chance to atone through service. Will you accept?"

"What service would you ask of me?"

Ian took a breath. He thought of Duncan taking in the blood on Ian's hands the second time they met. The words felt strange to say, like he was talking to and from a memory. Ian felt wholly inadequate to be the one saying them. 

"I am a Grey Warden, charged with fighting the Blight. I need every sword I can get by my side."

"A Grey Warden?" For the first time, Sten perked up with interest. "I have heard of your kind. You are said to be noble warriors."

"I don't know about that. There's only two of us left in Ferelden," Ian said. "But we have to stop the darkspawn. Are you in?"

"Yes. I accept your terms. I will pledge my strength to you if you can convince the Chantry to release me."

"I will." Ian nodded once to Sten. Then he set off to find the Reverend Mother.

Now they were five.


End file.
